Niagara Regional Police are continuing their search for a gunman who entered an apartment building at 675 King St. Monday morning.

And they’re asking for the community’s help in identifying the suspect, who narrowly escaped the police officers who responded, Det. Brian Smith told The Tribune, Tuesday.

Police were called to the building at 6:40 a.m., after a man who was standing in the building’s doorway waiting for a ride to work saw the six-foot tal gunman standing at the top of the stairs, wearing a dark-coloured snow suit, and a dark ski-mask.

Smith said police responded within “seconds” of the call. But it wasn’t fast enough.

“Basically what happened was the police were coming from across the road towards the building, while (the suspect) was coming out the back door,” he said.

Uniformed officers and officers from the NRP’s tactical and canine units “conducted a good search” of the area. They didn’t located the suspect but they did find his guns.

“Behind the residence, in between some garages, we located both of the firearms. He tossed them when he was running away,” Smith said. “They were both pellet guns, but they were extremely realistic looking.”

Smith pointed out that although the pellet guns weren’t as deadly as a real firearm, they could have proved deadly to the suspect carrying them.

“If our SWAT guys who went into that residence had seen him with one of those guns they would have shot him,” Smith said.

Smith was surprised the dogs of the canine unit didn’t have more success in tracking down the suspect.

“I guess it’s because so many police flooded the area. We confused the dogs,” he said. “Normally, what we would do is establish a wider perimeter before the dogs are called in.”

But when officers first arrived, they immediately surrounded the building, believing the gunman might still be inside.

Smith said investigators have “some ideas” of what may have motivated the armed man to enter the building, which has five apartments – all of them occupied – “but until we firm (the information) up, we don’t want to release it to the press.”

Police are currently following up a few leads, but they are also hoping for the public’s assistance.

“We’re still looking for assistance from the public to try and identify the suspect,” he said. “We’re following up leads but we don’t know who it is yet.”

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call them at 905-688-4111 ext. 3320, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.